Benefit Set To Honor Late Friend

The death of Chrissy DeStefano has led friends to stage a benefit Sunday for the Broward office of the Epilepsy Foundation of South Florida.

"She was always reaching out to other kids, so this is par for the course for her friends," said her mother, Elizabeth Goldberg of Hollywood.

"I think what the kids are doing is just sensational."

DeStefano, 21, a student at Broward Community College South Campus in Pembroke Pines, died May 29. She suffered head trauma after falling at home during an epileptic seizure.

At 7:30 p.m. Sunday, friends who had joined her in founding BCC's Performing Arts Club are slated to put on a talent show in the school's auditorium at 7200 Pines Blvd.

"I think what amazes me is how many lives Chrissy is impacting even after her death, and I think that is very impressive for someone only 21 years old," Goldberg said.

"My daughter was just that kind of person," said Goldberg, a department store sales manager in Plantation.

DeStefano had suffered from epilepsy since infancy and, despite medication, had been having as many as six seizures a week, according to her mother.

DeStefano's boyfriend, Marty Paparo of Miramar, who graduated from Miramar High in 1995, a year before she did, said they had been active together in local mission work for Everglades Community Church of Pembroke Pines, including volunteering with Shepherd's Way of Fort Lauderdale.

"She'd love it," Paparo said of what he thinks DeStefano's reaction would be to the staging of the benefit talent show.

No admission will be charged. Donations will be collected for the Fort Lauderdale office of the Epilepsy Foundation of South Florida, which offers programs and services dedicated to prevention, control and community awareness of epilepsy and other seizure disorders.

Both DeStefano and Paparo pursued performing arts as a hobby. She was completing 21/2 years of core curriculum classes at BCC while working as a cashier at a Publix Super Market in Pembroke Pines; she had been hoping to enter the radiology program in the fall. Paparo, a service adviser at Fort Lauderdale Lincoln Mercury, graduated from BCC in June 1998 with an associate's degree in science. They were among a handful of founders of the Performing Arts Club in April 1998.

Another of the club's founding members, Kevin Johnson of Fort Lauderdale, said DeStefano's death came as a "total shock" and inspired the group's leaders to dedicate this year's show to her. The group charged admission in hopes of raising money for the club when it put on its first talent show in June 1998.

The 18 acts in this year's show will feature music, comedy and drama, with many of the performers being BCC students, according to Johnson.

Sandy Matuseski of Hollywood, another club co-founder, described DeStefano, who enjoyed singing, as "the warmest, most caring person in the club and someone who would hug everybody, always reaching out, a very caring person."